Night in the Forest
All afternoon the four travelers moved through the Ixian forest,
Planetty exclaiming over the flowers, ferns and bright birds that
flitted from tree to tree, Thun sending up frequent high-flown
sentences, Kabumpo and Randy looking rather anxiously for some landmark
that would prove they were on the road to Ev. As it grew darker the
Elegant Elephant wisely decided to make camp, stopping in a small, tidy
clearing for that purpose. As Kabumpo swung to an impressive halt,
Randy slid to the ground, pulling the net bags with him, and began
to sort out the boxes containing food. Then he quickly gathered some
faggots for a fire, as the night was raw and chilly, and had Planetty
signal Thun to breathe on the wood. Thun, only too happy to be of some
use, quickly lighted the camp fire and he and the little Princess
watched curiously while Randy prepared his own and Kabumpo's supper,
making coffee in a tin box with some water Kabumpo had fetched in his
collapsible canvas bucket. The Elegant Elephant did rather well with
the contents of seven cake boxes and four bread and cereal containers,
and Randy found so many good things to eat among Chillywalla's presents
he felt sorry not to be able to share them with Planetty or Thun.
"It would be more fun if you ate too," he observed, looking down
sideways at the little Princess, who was sitting on a boulder, hands
clasped about her knees, while she gazed contentedly up at the stars.
"Would it?" Planetty smiled faintly, tapping her silver heels against
the rock. "This seems nite enough," she sighed, stretching up her arms
luxuriantly, "but now it is time to ret."
Slipping off her long metal cape, the Princess of Anuther Planet tossed
one end against a white birch and the other to a tall pine. To Randy's
surprise the ends of the cape instantly attached themselves to the
trees, making a soft flexible hammock. Into this Planetty climbed with
utmost ease and satisfaction.
"Good net, Randy and Big Bumpo, dear," she called softly. "Take care of
Thun. I've told him to stay where he is till the earling, and he will,
he will."
With a smile Planetty closed her bright eyes and the wind swaying her
silver hammock soon rocked her to sleep. It had been a long day and
Randy felt very drowsy himself. Walking over to the Thunder Colt, he
turned his head so that his fiery breath would fall harmlessly on a
cluster of damp rocks. He was pleased to find this steed from another
planet so obedient and gentle. Though formed of some live and lively
black metal, Thun was soft and satiny to the touch and seemed to enjoy
having his ears scratched and his neck rubbed as much as an ordinary
horse.
"Tap me twice on the shoulder if aught occurs, Slandy," he signaled,
blowing the words out lazily between Randy's pats. "And good net to
you, my Nozzies! Good net!"
"That language is just full of foolishness," sniffed Kabumpo, spreading
a blanket on the ground for Randy, and then stretching himself full
length beneath a beech tree. "Put out the fire, Nozzy, my lad, the
creature's breath makes light enough to frighten off any wild men or
monsters."
"Oh, I don't believe there are any wild beasts or savages in this
forest," Randy said, stamping out the embers of the camp fire. "It's
too quiet and peaceful. I have an idea we're almost across Ix and will
reach Ev by morning. What do you think, Kabumpo?"
Kabumpo made no answer, for the Elegant Elephant had stopped thinking
and was already comfortably asnore. So, with a terrific yawn, Randy
wrapped himself in the blanket and, curling up close to his big and
faithful comrade, fell into an instant and pleasant slumber. Morning
came all too soon, and Randy was rudely awakened by Kabumpo, who was
shaking him violently by the shoulders.
"Come on! Come on!" blustered the Elegant Elephant impatiently. "Stir
out of it, my boy, we've all been up for hours. Is it proper to lie
abed and let a Princess light the fire?"
"She didn't!" Sitting bolt upright, Randy saw that Planetty, with
Thun's help, actually had lighted a fire and set water to boil in the
tin box just as he had done the evening before.
"Oh, my goodness, goodness, Planetty! You mustn't do that rough work,"
he exclaimed, hurrying over to take the big cake box from Planetty's
hands.
"Why not?" beamed the little Princess, hugging the box close. "See, I
have found the great choconut cake for Big Bumpo to eat--I mean neat."
"Ha, ha! Choconut cake!" Kabumpo swayed merrily from side to side.
"Very neat, my dear. If there's one thing I love for breakfast it's
choconut cake." Laughing so he could hardly keep his balance, Kabumpo
held out his trunk for the cake box. "What a splendid little castle
keeper you'll make for some young King, Netty, my child!"
"Netty? Is that now my name?" Planetty pushed back her flying cloud of
hair with an interested sniff.
"If you like it," said Randy, his ears turning quite red at Kabumpo's
teasing remarks. Leading the little Princess to a flat rock, he sat her
down with great ceremony and then began opening up boxes of crackers
and fruit.
"Netty's a nite name," decided the Princess, her head thoughtfully on
one side. "I must tell Thun."
Skipping over to the Thunder Colt, who with drooping head and tail was
enjoying a little colt nap, she tapped out her new nickname in the
strange code she used when talking to him.
"No longer Planetty of Anuther Planet!" flashed Thun, awake in a
twinkling and sending up his message in a shower of sparks. "But
Anetty of Oz!"
"At least he's left off the N," mumbled Kabumpo, speaking thickly
through the cocoanut cake which he had tossed whole into his capacious
mouth. "Sounds rather well, don't you think?"
"Wonderful!" agreed Randy, who could scarcely keep his eyes off the
sparkling little Princess. "It's too bad she's not like us, Kabumpo,
then she could go back to Oz and stay there always."
"If she were like us, she wouldn't be so interesting," said Kabumpo,
shaking his head judiciously. "Besides, down here the poor child is
completely out of her element and liable to disintegrate or suffocate
or Ev knows what--" he went on, discarding a box of prunes for a carton
of tea.
"How was the cake?" Randy changed the subject, for he could not bear to
think of Planetty in danger of any sort.
"Stale," announced Kabumpo, making a wry face as he swallowed some tea
leaves. "I'll certainly be glad to catch up with some regular elephant
food. This eating bits out of boxes is diabolical--simply diabolical!
Here, give me those crackers and eat some of that other stuff. And look
at little Netty Ann, would you, shaking out that blanket as if she'd
been traveling with us for years. Why, the lass is a born housewife!"
"And isn't she pretty?" smiled Randy, waving to Planetty as he began
packing the boxes in the net bags again and stamping out the fire. "I
wonder what it's like up where she lives, Kabumpo?"
"Why not ask her?" Swinging up his saddle sacks, Kabumpo called gaily
to the little Princess, who came running over, the blanket neatly
folded on her arm.
"Thank you, Netty. You are certainly a great help to us!" Taking the
blanket and giving her an approving pat on the shoulder, Randy caught
hold of Kabumpo's belt strap and pulled himself easily aloft. "All
ready to go?"
Planetty nodded cheerfully as she mounted the Thunder Colt.
"Will this lightling be as nite as the last?" she demanded, tapping
Thun gently with her staff.
"Nicer," promised Randy as Thun pranced merrily ahead, Planetty's long
cape billowing like a silver cloud behind them.
"What do you do when you are at home?" called Randy as Kabumpo, giving
two short trumpets, followed close on the heels of the Thunder Colt.
"Home?" Planetty turned a frankly puzzled face.
"I mean, do you have a house or a castle?" persisted Randy, determined
to have the matter settled in his mind once for all. "Do you have
brothers and sisters, and is your father a King?"
"No house, no castle, no those other words," answered Planetty in even
greater bewilderment. "On Anuther Planet each is to herself or himself
alone. One floats, rides, skips or drifts through the leadling heights
and lowlands, hanging the cape where one happens to be."
"Regular gypsies," murmured Kabumpo under his breath. "So nobody
belongs to nobody, and nobody has anybody? Sounds kind of crazy to me."
"Yes, if you have no families, no fathers or mothers--" Randy was
plainly distressed by such a country and existence--"I don't see how
you came to be at all."
"We rise full grown from our Vanadium springs, and naturally I have my
own spring. Is that, then, my father?"
"Tell her 'yes,'" hissed Kabumpo between his tusks. "Why mix her all
up with our way of doing things? If she wants a spring for a father,
let her have it!" Kabumpo waved his trunk largely. "Ho, ho, kerumph!
I've always thought of springs as a cure for rheumatism, but live and
learn--eh, Randy--live and learn."
Randy paid small attention to the Elegant Elephant's asides; he was
too busy explaining life as it was lived in Oz to Planetty, making it
all so bright and fascinating, the eyes of the little Princess fairly
sparkled with interest and envy.
"I think I will not go with you to this Wizard of Ev," she announced in
a small voice as the young King paused for breath. "I do not believe I
shall like that old wizard or his castle."
Touching Thun with her staff, Planetty turned the Thunder Colt sideways
and went zigzagging so rapidly through the trees they almost lost sight
of her entirely.
"Now what?" stormed the Elegant Elephant, charging recklessly after her
through the forest. "What's come over the little netwit? Come back!
Come back, you foolish girl!" he trumpeted anxiously. "We'll take
you to Oz after you've been to Ev," he added with a sudden burst of
comprehension.
At Kabumpo's promise, Planetty half turned on her charger. "But this
Wizard of Ev will send us back to Anuther Planet. It is yourself that
has said so."
"No, no! We just said he would help you!" shouted Randy, leaning
forward and waving both arms for Planetty to turn back. "Oh, you really
must see Jinnicky," he begged earnestly. "Without his magic you cannot
live away from that Vanadium spring. Do you want to be stiff and still
as a statue for the rest of your days?"
"I'd rather be a statue down here with you and Bumpo, where the birds
sing and the flowers grow and the woods are green and wonderful, than
to be a live Princess of Anuther Planet!" sighed the metal maiden,
hiding her face in Thun's mane.
"You WOULD?" cried Randy, almost falling off the elephant in his
extreme joy and excitement. "Then you just SHALL, and Jinnicky will
change everything so you can live down here always and come back to Oz
with Kabumpo and me! Would you like that, Planetty?"
"Oh, that would be netiful!" Clasping Thun with both arms, the little
Princess laid her soft cheek against his neck. "NETIFUL!"
"Then ride on, Princess! Ride on!" Kabumpo spoke gruffly, for his
feelings had quite overcome him. "Toss me a 'kerchief, will you,
Randy?" he gulped desperately. "Oh, boo hoo, kerSNIFF! To think she
really likes us that much! Do you think she'd hear if I blew my trunk?"
"No, no, she's way ahead of us now," whispered Randy, handing an
enormous handkerchief down to Kabumpo after taking a sly wipe on it
himself. "Oh, isn't this a gorgeous day, Kabumpo, and isn't everything
turning out splendidly? And see there--we've actually come to the end
of the forest."